With any luck he’ll do the same as Blair might do and step down BEFORE he originally plans to. Commercial aviation will be better off the day that guy leaves the industry.

Andy

Airlines select diversion airport (planned on flightplan as already mentioned) based on a number of criteria, including:

* Distance (and thus fuel required) from planned destination – can be an important consideration when destination is close to fuel limits for a/c
* Locally based staff / base at diversion airport – can help with ground handling, line maintenance and arranging replacement crews (this is why yesterday some LPL EZY’s went to EMA, for example)
* Diversion contracts/deals with specific airports
* Ability to handle aircraft and pax – e.g. no point in diverting a full 747-400 to somewhere like Norwich, which might not even have steps tall enough to reach the pax doors
* Operational considerations on the day (e.g. which diversion airports are likely to be open and not also fogged in, capacity at diversion airports both in terminal, aircraft parking and handling, sometimes even coaching for pax – EMA was starting to turn away diversions last night, etc due ramp space limitations)

Andy

Huh? Who’s eating humble pie? As yet, AlphaOne have dismally failed to deliver on any promise or commitment they’ve made, and its still several weeks away from when they do if we even believe that they will meet the promises they’re currently making.

Sorry to disappoint you cloud_9, bmused56 (strange user name that!), Pembo330, and any other “spotters, artists and wanabees who comprise AlphaOne’s only supporters” (PPRuNe quote I think) but there’s still a long way to go to convince some of us that AlphaOne is anything other than a grand scam.

Andy

EMA currently taking quite a lot from BHX (BRT, BEE, Ryanair, Eastern, etc), and even some from LPL (EZY) and MAN (DragonAir Cargo).

MAN currently RVR 200/200 meters, BHX currently RVR 200/225 meters, LPL currently RVR 150 meters, Leeds currently CAVOK, EMA currently 6000 meters.

Leeds currently forecast to drop to 4000 meters by 20:00, then to 200 meters temporarily after 22:00. EMA forecast to drop to 200 meters for temporary periods after 18:00.

Andy

Anyone up for a Zurich daytrip? 😉

If I remember correctly, the airside tour is called “Rundfarhten” (or something like that – Swiss German you know!), and it used to cost something like SFR5 for about a 45 minute tour including a drive round the hangars, the terminal ramps and time at the infamous bus stop. The only place you get off the bus is at the runway intersection as seen in the photo. The tours run much more regularly at the weekend (they might not even run every day in the week???), although demand is also higher at weekend when you may have to wait an hour or two to get on a tour. Tours ran from the viewing deck. Commentry is provided, albeit in Swiss-German – “hier ist ein emm-dee-elf” :confused:

The best trick at the runway intersection was to hope that a second bus showed up whilst you were out there – again, much more likely at weekend. Then, leaving the crowd from the original bus and merging into people from the other bus load allowed for a longer stay by the runway. I managed to stay out there for over an hour one time as successive busses came along, but sadly in the end one bus driver wised up to what I was doing and insisted I got onto his bus 🙁

Andy

Kingfisher (India) ordered 20 ATR-72 500s and 30 Airbus A320 family a/c

The Chinese 737 order has been confirmed as 70 firm (mixture of -700s and -800s) with plans to confirm orders for 80 more soon – this isn’t strictly a Dubai order as it was confirmed during GWB’s visit to China

National Air Services (Saudi Arabia) has ordered 10 A318CJs, launching the corporate version of the smallest Airbus

Andy